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Show By BEN AMES WILLIAMS Copyright WNU SERVICE. 1 The young man moved swiftly toward to-ward him; but before he could come to Tope's side, the Inspector was on his hands and knees. Clint whispered: "Hurt?" And Tope said gravely: "There's another ladder here. I tripped over it." He added ruefully: "Spilled the milk. That's badl" "Another ladder?" Clint echoed. There was a dreadful clamor In his ears, his own pulse was pounding so. Then from the window above them, June called very softly: "Clint, dear, are you there? Are you all right?" "Yes, sweet," he whispered. "What happened?" she asked. "The Inspector fell down," he said reassuringly. "Didn't hurt him!" He climbed to her window, and her arms held him fast, her lips trembling trem-bling against his own. "You mustn't be afraid," he urged. "I'm coming back to you tomorrow," tomor-row," 6he declared. the room, he could not see whether the shade was drawn or not; but he waited, striving to peer into the blackness behind the glass. Once he looked down cautiously, and saw Tope's round figure huddled hud-dled at the foot of the ladder, Tope's round face watchfully upturned. He then saw June and Mrs. Taine come in, June with a lighted candle. can-dle. Behind them he saw Rab and Asa in the hall, and Mrs. Bowdon's ample form. And then his heart suddenly was in his throat; for Mrs. Taine had a glass of milk in her hand. Mrs. Leaford had drunk a glass of milk that night she died; the Hur-ders Hur-ders too. There was to Clint something some-thing hideous and sinister in this innocent in-nocent beverage now. He took an impulsive step higher, his hand raised to break the window in. But Tope below him hissed a warning; and Clint leaned down to whisper desperately: "Mrs. Taine is giving her a glass of milk!" CHAPTER XIH-Continued -13 Tope nodded, and he asked after a moment: "Do you know whether ( the front door was bolted or locked, the night your mother died, before you went to bed?" "Yes," June said. "Uncle Justus bolted it. That's why, when the door blew open, it scared me. I knew it had been fastened, and I thought there must be someone in the house. But I didn't wait to find out. I just ran." "Mr. Taine bolted it, did he?" Tope repeated thoughtfully. She said: "Yes, after Mother was in bed, I came to the head of the stairs, and I heard him tell Grandpa Grand-pa Hurder the door was fast." She remembered suddenly: "And he tried to slip upstairs during the evening eve-ning before Mother died. Aunt Evie saw him, called him back." Tope was silent for a moment, and he asked then a new question: "If you went back, where would started forward, but June freed herself, her-self, nnd she said calmly: "I'm coming. Aunt Evie. You need not hold me!" And she nodded to Clint in a deep reassurance, and led the way toward to-ward the waiting car. Tope had promised to meet Clint beside the road, on the way up Kenesaw Hill, as soon as it should be dark. It was still no more than dusk when Clint took the road up the hill; but at an angle the Inspector Inspec-tor stepped out to halt him. "Doctor Cabler's at the house," he said. "He and Mr. Taine stayed with Mr. Hurder during the funeral. I want to see him when he leaves. Go ahead, over the top of the hill." Clint obeyed; and Tope explained: "Heale can't be here. He's laid up a bad cold from last night But he's lending us a couple of men." And he said, half to himself: "Here are two women killed. A they likely have you stay?" "There isn't any room at Aunt Evie's," June explained. "It's just a small house, you know. I'd have to stay at Grandma Bowdon's." "They've put Mr. Hurder upstairs, in the Bowdon house," Tope reported. report-ed. "The back room on the west side." "That's a spare room," June assented. as-sented. "Grandpa and Grandma Bowdon used the east rooms." "If you go out there, then, you'd probably have th front room on the west side." "I suppose so." "I'd want you to try to arrange to take care of him," Tope told her. "To sit up with him tonight in the room with him." He considered. "They may not let you; but if you're in the next room, you can hear, listen." lis-ten." "The stairs are between," she said. "But the doors are just across the hall, opposite one another." "Are there locks on the doors in that house?" Tope asked gravely. "Locks, yes," June said. "There are locks everywhere. Even the closets are locked. Grandma Bowdon Bow-don always carries a bunch of keys on her belt." Clint said urgently: "Inspector, I'm going to have a ladder ready, so I can get up to her room, get in the window if I have to." "Yes," Tope said seriously. "That's good. Or so she can get out and down to us, quickly, if anyone any-one tries to get at her. And I'll give her a revolver, show her how" The telephone interrupted him, and Miss Moss went to answer it. She turned to say softly, her hand over the receiver: "It's for June." So June crossed to the older woman's wom-an's side; she took the telephone in her hand. They heard her say: "Hello. Yes . . . Yes, Grandma." Grand-ma." And after a long time: "Yes . . . Yes, I'm coming." And then: "Yes . . . They will bring me out, in a little while." Clint felt his pulses pound with a deep terror; but he could not check her now. A moment later she said, "Yes," again, and put the instrument instru-ment down and faced them all. "That was Grandma Bowdon," she explained. "Grandpa Bowdon's "For good and all," he agreed. She said wistfully: "You could come ln here, out of the rain." And she urged: "They've left Grandpa Hurder all alone. I want to go to him." But he said sternly: "No. Maybe that's what they want you to do. You stay here. If anyone tries to open your door" He kissed her again. "Good night, sweet," he said. "And sleep sound." He descended to the ground once more. "Mr. Hurder's alone," he reported re-ported to Tope. "She wants to go to him. I wouldn't let her." Then June spoke, whispering, above their heads; and Clint was up the ladder in a bound. "Rab and Asa have gone into Grandpa's room," she explained. "Asa wants to stay with Grandpa; but Rab's arguing about it I can hear them talking." She turned her head at some sound in the hall, whispered, "Hush," and crossed to listen at the door. Clint, even from where he was, could hear the murmur of their voices. Then this sound receded, re-ceded, and June returned to him. "They're going," she reported. "Asa said he had to go to town later tonight, and he wanted to stand his turn with Grandpa now, and let Rab and Aunt Evie sleep. But Rab insisted in-sisted it was all right to leave Grandpa, insisted that they both go home." "I'll tell Tope," Clint assured her. and looked down. But Tope had vanished. She urged in shaken tones: "I want to see if Grandpa's all right if they did anything to him. Pleasel" Clint hesitated. "I'll come in with you," he decided then. He climbed over the sill, and with their hands entwined, they crossed the room. Very quietly she removed the chair braced under the knob and opened the door. "He's sleeping so peacefully, like a child." When he descended the ladder. Tope had not reappeared; but Clint was content in the certainty that June was safe. He stood by the foot of the ladder, tense, ready for any alarm; and minutes drifted by. Once there was a sound, toward the Taine house, a rumbling sound as though a garage-door had been rolled back on its track. If Asa were departing for town now, then Rab, or Uncle Justus, or Aunt Evie, might presently come this way. Clint was in a sweat of tense, fearful fear-ful anticipation. He began to wonder won-der why Asa did not start the car and go. (TO BE CONTINUED) "She won't drink it," Tope promised. prom-ised. "I warned her not to drink anything, or eat anything except what the others did." And Mrs. Taine suddenly, still talking, withdrew. June did not move. She watched the door. Clint waited, his pulse racing. Then, after a long minute, Tope whispered: "Down!" Clint was on the ground in an instant; in-stant; and Tope breathed in his ear "The door." Clint at first did not understand. Then he heard the click of a latch, and toward the rear of the house a figure did appear Mrs. Taine, he guessed. She walked briskly away. They saw her figure in silhouette against the light when she opened the kitchen door of her own home yonder and went in. Then Clint started to climb the ladder again. "Careful," the old man warned him. "Don't show yourself above the window-sill. She might see you from over there." But Clint could not resist looking once to be sure June was unharmed. He saw her carefully propping a chair under the door-knob; saw that the milk stayed untasted. She secured the door, and then blew out the candle, and so came to the window and opened it. She leaned here above him, and he whispered: "All right, June?" "Yes," she said slowly. "But Aunt Evie gave me a glass of warm milk. To make me sleep, she said. I promised to drink it when I was in bed." "She's gone home," Clint told her reassuringly. , "Home?" the girl exclaimed. "She said she was going to stay with him. He's all alone. I'm going in" "No," Clint insisted. "Rab and Asa are still in the house. And she's coming back. Give me that milk, June. I want Tope to taste it" She brought the glass and gave it to him. He said: "I'll be right here. All night" "Poor darling!" she whispered. "In the rain." "Near you," he told her. "I shan't feel it" He took the milk down to Inspector Inspec-tor Tope. The old man dipped a finger into it touched the finger to his lips. "Can't taste anything," he said. "But I'll send Rand to have it tested, right now." And be directed: direct-ed: "You stay here!" Clint nodded, and Tope started away. He moved past the corner of the house; and suddenly, when he was six paces off, he stumbled over something lying in the uncut grass, and fell heavily. Clint heard the breath go out of him with a grunt "Mrs. Taine is giving her a glass of milk." man don't often kill a woman unless he loves her, or has loved her." They passed the two houses which still stood atop the hill; but Clint scarce noticed them. "You mean Mr. Leaford?" he cried, in incredulous incredu-lous astonishment. "But a woman don't mind killing another woman," said the Inspector Inspec-tor grimly, as though finishing his thought; and Clint looked at him with wide startled eyes. Before he could speak the question ques-tion in his mind, a man appeared in their headlights, a policeman in uniform: and they stopped. Tope opened the car door. "Hello, Rand," he said. "Doctor still there?" The policeman nodded. "And I've got the ladder," he reported. "Hid it over in the woods." "Good man," Tope approved, and they got out and waited, till presently pres-ently Doctor Cabler in his car came down the road. He stopped at a signal, and Tope spoke to him apart in low tones. When the Doctor drove on, the Inspector returned to them, and he explained: "Mr. Hurder is better! Tomorrow will tell the tale, whether he's going to live. The Doctor thinks he will. He's given the old man something to make him sleep." The house on this side all was dark, except that there was a lighted light-ed window in the kitchen. Tope was at the rear corner there. The window-blind was drawn; but by moving mov-ing out a little from the house, Clint could see a rectangle of light where the window was. Some one was preparing pre-paring supper talking, probably. Tope stood just below the window, as though listening. Inaction began to madden him, when at last there came an incident inci-dent to relieve the strain: a door funeral is this afternoon, late. She wants me to be there, and to go home with them afterward." She added slowly: "That's what I will do." In the preparations that followed, Clint's hopeless protests were all overborne. June's dress, that new dress Asa had given her, was sooted and soiled. Miss Moss made Clint drive her to the nearest shop, and they brought home two or three dresses for trial, found one that would serve. When they thus returned, re-turned, Inspector Tope had rummaged rum-maged out his old revolver and was explaining to June its simple mechanism mech-anism before she left for the funeral. The ritual was scarce finished before be-fore Mrs. Taine came swiftly toward them "It is hard for me to forgive you for this, June." Aunt Evie told the girl, in her low, whispering tores. "You have added much to the burden bur-den we have all had to bear today." Clint saw Rab guiding old Mrs. Bowdon to their car; he heard June say calmly: "This is Mr. Jervies. Aunt Evie." Her eyes met Clint's, and she added proudly: "I'm going to marry him. I'll stay with you as long as you need me. if it isn it too long; but then I'm going to him." . . "That is as may be," Mrs. Taine commented. "Such matters are not decided so quickly, June." Then Asa came up beside ter. He drawled cheerfully: "Hullo, June Hullo Jervies. June, with a man like this one to take care of you. you'd better hang on to him." Mrs Taine said softly: Asa! The word hissed on her tongue. As? looked at Clint. "Why don t you keep her. Jervies?" he suggest-ed suggest-ed insistently. dint cried: "1 want to! ! But Mrs. Taine said: Come child." She took June s arm, . Chnt saw her fingers tighten cruelly. He opened; someone came out. Clint saw that this must be Justus Jus-tus Taine, a heavy figure of a man, walking with head bowed. He saw this man pause yonder by the ash-filled ash-filled cellar of the Hurder house and stand for a moment beside the pit as though in some dark recovery, recov-ery, before he went on. Later a light appeared in the Taine house, behind a curtained window; then nothing happened for a while. Clint had time for thought, and he remembered his own suspicions of Justus Taine, and was glad Taine was no longer here in the house with June. But-Tope had dismissed Clint's theory, and the young man remembered this, and his nerves drew taut again. When someone touched his elbow, he leaped like a startled horse, ready to cry out but Tope whispered: "Hush, steady, son!" Clint nodded; he tried to speak, but his voice croaked dangerously. He lifted the ladder, Tope helping him- and they leaned it against the window-sill above them without a sound. .... l.- Clint climbed it instantly: he stopped with his head level with the sill Since there was no light in |